August 1998

We still don't know what exactly GameArts is up to, but I've spoken to a reliable source who told me that GameArts is working on lots of unannounced stuff. I really want to tell everyone more, but I honestly don't have any more info. One unannounced project we've confirmed they are under development with is Lunar 3, but that is still a ways off, and it's highly unlikely that is what is being prepared for the website. It is good to know that they've got many projects which have yet to emerge, leading to more speculation as to what other games are secretly under development. - Webber 10:00 PM EST

The first movie of game footage for Sega's Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast is available courtesy of Seganet. It's a little short and small, but you can see the generation leap this game will signify. Go here to grab it. - Webber 9:30 PM EST

Nintendo announced last week that The Legend of Zelda:TOoT(The Ocarina of Time) would be available as a golden cartridge for a limited time. It was supposedly only going to be available to those preordering the game during a specific period, from October 24th to November 22nd. Then a couple days later Nintendo announced that LoZ:TOoT would be available to all at anytime on a golden cart, no preorder required. Now, Nintendo has changed tune once again, but this time for good. LoZ:TOoT will be available on a golden cart only to those who preorder the game. You don't have to preorder it specifically between the dates of October 24th to November 22nd, which was a concern for the thousands who have already preordered the game, but you must preorder it to get a golden cart. - Webber 9:20 AM EST

GameArts has posted a large "Coming Soon" sign on their website. We have absolutely no idea what it means, but we are hard at work trying to get to the bottom of it. GameArts in the past has gone with a theme for their website, usually being their next major game release. It's possible that this is what is happening now, and the site is being re-designed. We have no idea which game this re-design would be for if this is the case. It is most likely not a current Lunar game, including the re-release of Lunar 2 EB for the Playstation. It would be surprising if they did a re-design for the rumored release of Grandia for Playstation also. So, let the speculation begin, something is happening there and no doubt it's going to be good. - Webber 11:00 PM EST

Zone Pharaoh was able to make a movie of the incredible Lunar 2 EB intro for Saturn. I don't know how he was able to cram this 7 minute AVI under 20 megs but he did and without losing much quality either. The movie is about 18 megs but is well worth the download if you're a big Lunar fan (or even if you're not). Our Lunar 2 EB coverage is really starting to be HUGE with our 13 movies and more than 200 pics. We will be covering other games as extensively as this one whenever we find it is worthy enough (Lunar SSS, FF8 and Xenogears will probably earn this amount of coverage also when they come out). To check the movie out, go to the movies page or to the Lunar EB Special page. - Rudo 5:00 PM EST

Although this isn't really RPG related, we've uploaded 2 new movies of classic GameArts games (GameArts is responsible for the Lunar series and Grandia for those who don't know). Those games are the classic shooter Silpheed on Sega CD and the graphic adventure Urusei Yatsura also on Sega CD. For those diehard GameArts fan out there, this might be a worthy download so head over to the movies page to get them. - Rudo 5:00 PM EST

Zone Pharaoh really went crazy with the capture card and captured 100 pics of Magic Knight Rayearth for Saturn. Yes, you heard me right, 100 pics!!! When I saw the amount of pics he made, I decided to cut about half of them but after seeing them I couldn't decide which ones to cut since they were all gorgeous pics so I said "what the heck, I'm putting them ALL up!". This game is really gorgeous and is the pinaccle of 2-D hand-drawn RPGs. With Magic Knight Rayearth coming out in a few weeks, just content yourself with watching those pics, drool, and then rush to the phone to pre-order the game (if you haven't done it already). One more thing, I decided to put all 100 pics on the same page, my reasoning being that people can go to the page, then while all the pics load they can go play a game or go eat something and when they come back, the pics will be there on the screen waiting for them (Retraction: I have split up the pics on 2 pages now due to performance issues). Click here to see the 100 pics. - Rudo 4:00 AM EST

We've got 7 new pics of Ogre Battle 3 for the N64 tonight. This game really looks like it's going to kick ass. It sure is going to beat Quest 64 and it's about time that we get a quality RPG on N64. You can check out the Ogre Battle 3 pics section to see the new pics by clicking here. - Rudo 1:00 AM EST

Hudson has announced a new Action RPG for Dreamcast entitled EGG or Elemental Gimmick Gear. The game will progress in both 2D and 3D, with a fully hand drawn world map, and 3D battles. Here is some info on the game from Videogamespot:

The game is set on a planet whose civilizations
have been annihilated, leaving only a trace of an
ancient but advanced civilization. After its initial
destruction, people began creating a new,
different civilization. These people soon
discovered the ruined city of Fogna.
During the excavation, they stumbled upon a
machine called an EGG (Elemental Gimmick
Gear) and a mysterious Sleeping Man, who has
been sleeping for thousands of years. After the
excavation, people created their own EGGs
based on research of the original. EGG was
utilized to the fullest for chores, military uses, and
even battling for fun.
But after 100 years had passed from the time the
EGG was first excavated, huge tentacles arose
from Fogna. Tentacles started to haul the city and
the people living there into ground. Coinciding with
this, the mysterious Sleeping Man awoke. The
player will act as the Sleeping Man, trying to solve
the mystery of the tentacles and save the city.

EGG is scheduled for release spring of 1999 in Japan. Thanks to Videogamespot for this great info, and go here to see the article for yourself . - Webber 1:00 AM EST

A lot of people are wondering about the status of Lufia 3 for Playstation, and the following info may help or may make things worse. It was reported around the internet a little while back that the game was in serious trouble, due to its developers going bankrupt. However, it was the game's publisher that went bankrupt. Actually only the game's Japanese publisher Nihon-Flex went bankrupt, not the game's US publisher Natsume. So, specifically Estpolis 3 is in trouble, but seemingly Lufia 3 may be doing fine. The company developing Estoplis 3 is the Never-Land Company, and not Tri-Ace as was thought by so many people online. A number of things may happen, a new Japanese publisher may step up, Natsume may provide the necessary funding, Lufia 3 could disappear, and I'm sure there are other scenarios which I'm not thinking of. It's very hard to say, but Lufia 3 is supposedly still coming. In closing and just for the record, it's a crazy world and I'm just living in it, I'm not trying to understand it. - Webber 12:00 AM EST

We've got 17 pics of Thousand Arms for you tonight. Thousand Arms is the latest RPG by Red (makers of Sakura Taisen) for the Playstation. This game seems like it could be a winner. Atlus already expressed interest in porting it over to America but haven't officially announced it yet. However, expect them to announce it soon cause they've already posted a preview of it on their web site (even thought they haven't announced it yet) so it's a pretty safe bet to assume that we'll see this game in America. Atlus certainly is becoming a fan favorite these days with all those RPGs they are releasing. A new Working Designs seems to be born and we're certainly not going to complain about that. Click here to check out the pics. - Rudo 11:00 PM EST

As was reported quite a while ago, Zelda: The Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64, will come on a gold cartridge. However, this gold cartridge will only be available for people pre-ordering the game between Oct. 24 and Nov. 22. For people buying the game when it goes on sale on November 23rd, the game will come on a regular cartridge so if you want that gold cartridge, make sure you pre-order it before the due date because the gold cartridge will surely become a collector's item. - Rudo 11:00 PM EST

We have a review of the latest Konami RPG: Azure Dreams for you tonight courtesy of Esque. This game came out about a month ago so if you haven't played it yet, you should definately check out this review to get a good impression of how this RPG stacks up to the other ones currently available. Click here to check out the review. - Rudo 9:30 PM EST

Although our Lunar 2 Eternal Blue coverage has been slacking a bit due to moving to www.lunar-net.com, we are going to pick up the pace with three new movies of Lunar 2 Eternal Blue. All of them are near the 10 meg mark. The first shows the dragons destroying Pentagulia, the second shows Zophar emerging to swallow up the Goddess Tower and the remains of Pentagulia, and the third shows the death scene of Ghaleon! These movies can be found on the movies page and L2EB Specials page. - GhaleonOne 6:45 PM EST

As we've been reporting for nearly a month now, Lunar 2 Eternal Blue, the Saturn remake of the classic Sega CD RPG sequel, is being ported to the Playstation for a Spring 1999 release date in Japan. Also, as we all expect, WD will probably pick this game up for a late 1999/early 2000 release for the US Playstation. But there is some small news about the Playstation Lunar 2 Eternal Blue. I'm sure all that imported Lunar 2 Eternal Blue for the Sega Saturn noticed the small amounts of pixelization in the anime cut scenes. Well, the Playstation version is supposed to be crystal clear. We dont know what video format they plan on using, but I would expect that since the Playstation SSS ended up 2 CDs instead of 1, that the Playstation Lunar 2 Eternal Blue will likely be 3 or more CDs in length. Hopefully if(even though its more of a when issue) WD brings out L2EB they will give it the same promo treatment they are giving Lunar SSS's promo this year. - GhaleonOne 2:35 AM EST

Activision has big plans for promotion of their upcoming Playstation title Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, as it has been renamed for the US. The game is expected to be available for purchase on or around September 29th. Activision intends to distribute approx. half a million demos of the game between now and the end of this year. Tenchu will also be featured in many television and print ads. I loved the Japanese version, and as long as Activision leaves the game fairly intact, they've got a guaranteed hit on their hands. - Webber 10:10 PM EST

Climax, producers of the original Dark Savior for the Saturn, are expected to announce its sequel for Dreamcast, Dark Savior 2. For those not familiar with the original Dark Savior, it was a mediocre at best Action-RPG which featured parallel stories which were completely different depending on your actions during the first section of the game (a novel idea). This added a lot of replay value since the story and goal of the game was completely different in each of the parallels. Hopefully Climax will do a much better job with the sequel while keeping the same parallel system. - Webber 9:30 AM EST

In preparation for the Parasite Eve release on September 9, we're giving you a review of it tonight thanks to the amazing E-Chan (he loves it when I compliment him on his greatness). Check out this great review by clicking on this link right here. - Rudo 9:00 PM EST

We've got another review of Lunar 2 EB tonight. This time it is a reader review by Robert Boyd. You can check out the review by clicking here or access it from the Lunar 2 EB special page. - Rudo 9:00 PM EST

I have a few small mini-updates here. First off, the Lunar Mailing List is doing great. I started it late last night, and now, about 5 or 6 hours later, it already has a good 30-40 members! I'd expect ALOT more later today. This mailing list has a limit of 1000 subscribers though, so if you want on it, you might want to hurry and have your name added, because these spots are filling up quite quickly. Send EMail to listserver@lunar-net.com to join. If need be, I'll create a second list. Also, if someone wants any more mailing lists for different games, I can set them up, but make sure you know at least 50-100 people that would want to be on the list before requesting one. I dont want to start a list that isnt even going to have any subscribers or conversations within the mailing list. Secondly, I'm still working on a good polls script, I decided to just try and design one myself now, since the other scripts were to much of a pain to set up. Also, we will be setting up a search engine for the site in the near future among other things. - GhaleonOne 11:30 AM EST

A Lunar mailing list has been started by us here at LunarNET. To subscribe, please send an EMail to listserver@lunar-net.com with the subject and message body of "Subscribe". This mailing list is now also listed in the Utilities page. - GhaleonOne 2:30 AM EST

We've updated the Brigandine pics section with 25 new pics. Brigandine is an upcoming Strategy RPG from Atlus to be released this November in America. The game has battles similar to Shining Force 3 in that when you attack or get attacked, the game switches to a polygon cut-scene of you or the enemy attacking. Click here to see the pics. - Rudo 9:00 PM EST

If you came to LunarNET early this morning around 12 or 1 AM, you would have noticed it was password protected. Someone decided they would be a real jerk and password protect the whole site locking everyone out from viewing the site. We have a very good idea of whom did this, but unfortunately without real proof, there is nothing we can do. I have, however, removed the files that this person accessed to password protect this site, so things should be OK now. Its pretty sad when someone decides they need to do something like this just for kicks, and there are alot of us that are NOT happy by this. We apologize for being down for that hour or so this morning and hope it'll never happen again. - GhaleonOne 10:30 PM EST

A new message board has been added. This one for discussion about Working Designs. This one might be useful for having interesting (and mature) discussions about the ever contraversial Victor Ireland or to talk about new games like Elemental Gearbolts. Also, a board has been set up for the Lunar club, Althena's Court Online. Click here to go to the message boards! - GhaleonOne 10:30 PM EST

We have 2 new reader reviews for you tonight, one for Brave Fencer Musashiden and the other one for Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Remix. Click here for the Brave Fencer Musashiden review and here for the Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Remix review. - Rudo 10:30 PM EST

This isn't generally something that we would update about, but RPG news is tough to come by these days. All those who are interested will be able to watch a Streaming Broadcast of Sega's Press Conference introducing Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast to the world. The press conference will take place this Saturday Morning at 1 AM. Go here to view the page where the broadcast will take place.-Webber 10:10 PM EST

Lunar 3 is one of the most speculated about topics in online gaming circles, and Victor Ireland is at the center of the discussions. Love him or hate him, he has and will continue to bring the Lunar series to the US. More speculation on Usenet prompted this quote from Vic on the subject of Lunar 3:

Again, LUNAR 3 will come to the US. It is 2-3 years away. Platform
undecided. Why speculate? Sheesh...

This isn't going to stop anyone from speculating, but we needed updates.-Webber 10:00 PM EST

After a lot of tweaking, we are now happy with the look and functionality of the message boards. All bugs should be gone (hopefully) and we can all start to have great discussions about RPGs. Click here to go to the message boards (there are 8 of them). - Rudo 11:45 PM EST

The wait is finally over and you should be able to pick up a copy of Kartia today at your favorite store. To coincide with the launch of the game, we have a review all ready to give you an idea of what to expect from the game. Esque has probably set a world record for review-lenght with this one as his review is over 3,500 words long!!! He basically covers every aspect of the game in this review and you won't find a deeper review anywhere else on the internet. Click here to check the review out. - Rudo 11:00 AM EST

By now most around the internet know that Square has delayed the release of their upcoming Playstation RPG Xenogears by one month, from October to November. They are blaming the delay on localization issues, and wanting to deliver the highest quality translation possible. I find this delay a little strange. I personally spoke to a Square representative at E3, and asked specifically about the Xenogears translation. I was told that the game was completely translated. I reported this back to G1, who posted this news during E3. I did think that a bit of the text I viewed at E3 was a little dumb, like a character saying "Huff Puff", to show exhaustion. But, this isn't a big deal, and I can't imagine Square is completely redoing the translation. So, who knows what reasons Square really has for delaying Xenogears. Possibly to capitalize more Holiday sales, but this delay doesn't bode well for a Novemeber release of Brave Fencer Musashiden, possibly the perfect title to compete with Nintendo's November release of Zelda:Toot.-Webber 10:00 PM EST

A good friend of mine, Garrett McGowan, sent us his first impressions of Lunar 2 EB. Being a huge Lunar fan, you can of course guess that his first impressions of the game are very favorable. To see his first impressions, go to the Lunar 2 EB Special page. - Rudo 2:00 PM EST

I have fixed all the message boards and all of them work fine now. Next stop will be the weekly poll, since it hasnt worked for the past few days....as with the Top 10 Lists. Click here for the message boards. - GhaleonOne 4:00 AM EST

I havent gotten a proper script for the weekly polls yet(nor the Top 10) so I have taken it down temporarily. I'll set something up in a few days, but I've spent to much time on it already and I've got other things to work on. But the message boards will be back in a few minutes! I'll update in a bit when they are up. Also, we have set up our new EMail account. You can reach us at webmaster@lunar-net.com. - GhaleonOne 9:30 PM EST

E-chan had the honor of the first Lunar 2 EB Remix on LunarNET! His views must have been like mine, because he gave the game great scores. This review can be found on either the Reviews page or the L2EB Special Section! - GhaleonOne 3:30 AM EST

I have redone the links page and it now runs correctly. If you own a website, you can easily add it to our links page with the form I have set up. It will automatically add your site to the links page. Also, I am still working on the forms for the weekly poll and the Top 10/Most Wanted sections. They should work by tommorrow afternoon. - GhaleonOne 3:05 AM EST

Yes, more Lunar 2 EB Remix movies! This time we put up Lunn's intro, showing his students trying to fight him with the karate he tought them, and Lunn kicking the crap out of them. And yes, we FINALLY have Ghaleon's intro on movie. Unfortunately we were only able to get his actual intro and not the holographic scene before it(which is equally awesome as the intro itself!). The movies arent too big, so check them out at either the movies page or the Lunar 2 EB Special.- GhaleonOne 3:00 AM EST

I've been working with the CGI today, and hopefully the links page and weekly poll(to the right) will be working within a few hours. We ALREADY KNOW they are not working correctly and they should be working within the next few hours. Also, the message boards links are outdated, and I will be replacing the message boards with new scripts that run better after I finish work with the links and weekly polls. Lastly I will redo the Top 10 and Most Wanted Polls sometime tonight to work with the CGI and register the voting online, like the weekly poll will do shortly. Also, later tonight, expect more EB Remix movies and a few other updates! - GhaleonOne 7:15 PM EST

Yup, we've finally gotten off SimpleNet and moved to our own domain! This hopefully means no more downtime, like most of last week at SimpleNet! Also, one note, until I get some links fixed and some forms and such fixed there will be a few things down until later tonight. The message boards will be down for a few more hours, as will the Top 10 and Most Wanted polls. Also down will be the weekly poll on the sidebar as I'm going to try and find a program to automatically register your votes for online viewing all the time(as goes for the Top 10 and Most Wanted as well). Expect a new links page up in a few minutes as I redesigned it using CGI to allow website owners to just type in their website and have it automatically added to the correct category in the links page. One final note. I'm working on finding a CGI script for a search engine. Hopefully I'll find one and you'll be able to search the site for what you want! - GhaleonOne 2:30 PM EST

Tommorrow LunarNET will finally move to http://www.lunar-net.com. Remember, we are not at www.lunarnet.com, we are going be located at www.lunar-net.com. Rudo will be moving most of the files overnight, and I will finish up the move by transferring the message boards and redoing the mailforms(Top 10 polls, weekly polls, etc) to work with our new CGI-bin. - GhaleonOne 7:00 PM EST

This information should be regarded as rumor only at this point. Enix has possibly started development for Sega's Dreamcast. If this turns out to be true, this would be great news, and almost assure success for the system in Japan. Enix is rumored to be doing one of two things, either developing a multiplayer internet game, genre unknown, using Dreamcast's modem capabilties, or developing an RPG possibly using the modem capabilties/multiplayer. Again this is all rumor only, and totally unconfirmed.-Webber 9:00 AM EST

A new pics section was finally put up for Lunar 2 EB Remix! I skipped ahead quite a long ways this time to the section titled "Final Battle". If you dont want to view the last boss, then dont look. Also, I'll have some small Elemental Gearbolt coverage later with a few pics of the game. I just picked the game up a few hours ago and its a great RPG/shooter crossover. The only bad thing about it, is the fact that the game isnt half as good without the GunCon, which will end up costing you an extra $50 at least, seeing as they require you to get a game with it. So if you want the full experience of Elemental Gearbolt, then its going to cost you over $100. I'll post more about the game tonight or tommorrow. Click here for the pics of Lunar 2. - GhaleonOne 3:55 PM EST

Nothing has been announced yet, but Atlus Co. of America has updated their website with some info on Red's massive Playstation RPG. Go here to view Atlus's Thousand Arms small preview complete with screenshots. Plus Gail Salamanca, Atlus's Product Specialist, left this juicy post on Usenet concerning the game:

Also, on the "In Development" section of our website you will find some
interesting tidbits on THOUSAND ARMS. We have yet to make an official
announcement concerning the domestic release of this game, however keep your
eyes peeled.

Makes you just wanna scream doesn't it, things are looking mighty good for Thousand Arms and US Release to appear in the same sentence at some point. Keep checking LunarNET for more info.-Webber 12:15 AM EST

Shadows of Reality is coming, it may still be a ways away, but when info is leaked it really seems like it will be worth the wait. The latest update is a new section at the game's website dedicated to groups, gangs, factions, etc. that will operate in the game. Three different groups have revealed themselves, two organized crime groups, and a group of gridrunners. Interested in more info on these groups, or want to create your own movement? Go here to visit the Shadows of Reality Player's Directory.-Webber 12:00 AM EST

There will be more changes to the remix of Tales of Phantasia for the Playstation than originally thought. Namco had planned to add new Anime cutscenes to the game and also upgrade the graphics and sound, but now they apparently are planning to do much more. Only the main story of the game will be the same as the original, new side quests and events will be added to the game. Voice acting will be added to many parts of the game. The battle system will be upgraded, with an improved AI, and combo attacks. Look for Tales of Phantasia to be released this winter in Japan.-Webber 11:30 PM EST Source: Magic Box

Webber uploaded three more Lunar EB Remix movies! The first movie is Lemina's intro. The second is the magic carpet scene with Lemina. The third is the awesome bathing scene with Hiro, Lucia and Ruby(and what Ruby does to Hiro for his....wandering eyes ;P ). These movies can be retrieved from either the Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Special or the movies page. - GhaleonOne & Webber 3:50 AM EST

Webber has uploaded two new Lunar 2 Eternal Blue movies! One shows off the overmap from the Blue Spire to Grandpa Gwyn's home, and the other is Ronfar's always hilarious intro! Also, Zone Pharoah put up the intro to Tengai Makyo: The Apocalypse IV in MPEG form. These movies can be downloaded from the movies page and the Lunar movies are also put up on the Lunar 2 special page. - GhaleonOne 3:00 AM EST

A partial bromide list has been put up in the Game FAQs section for Lunar 2 EB Remix. Also put up were some Gameshark codes courtesy of RightStep. Expect more bromides to be added to the list, and information regarding the anime cyrstals, movie player and more! Also expect a new pics section tommorrow. Click here for the Lunar 2 Special section. - GhaleonOne 6:00 PM EST

This is rumor only, but Webber just told me to inform our viewers that Capcom is possibly working on an upcoming DreamCast RPG. Nothing more is known and if we get any more information, you can bet it'll be posted here. - GhaleonOne & Webber 5:45 PM EST

THQ's Playstation RPG Granstream Saga has now been completely analyzed by our very own editor Esque. The review is not very favorable but you can check out for yourself by clicking here or by going to the Reviews page. - Rudo 5:00 PM EST

A review of Radiant Silvergun for Saturn (import) has been added. This game is not an RPG but we have noticed that quite a lot of RPG fans love shooters (including most of the LunarNET staff) and since this game is probably one of the best shooter ever made, we thought a review would be a good thing. You can check out Commodore Wheeler's review of Radiant Silvergun by clicking here or by going to the Reviews page. - Rudo 5:00 PM EST

We have put up another movie from Lunar Magic School (thanks to Zone Pharaoh) and this time it is from a.... well, nude scene :P. Yep, this movie is of a character in the game (female) which strips down to nothing so that a spell can be painted on her body. We can only hope that not all the movies that Zone supplies us will be from naked anime girls cause we'll start asking ourselves questions :P. Click here to go to the movies page. - Rudo 5:00 PM EST

We have a new Staff member here at LunarNET. Our latest aquisition is Zone Pharaoh which will be our European correspondent as well as help the site in any way he can (doing movies for example). Now, c'mon, can you honestly say that you've ever seen a more talented group of individuals than here on LunarNET? Huh...!! Don't answer that :P. Click here to check out the staff page. - Rudo 5:00 PM EST

Three new Ehrgeiz movies and three new Brave Fencer Musashiden movies have been uploaded. Ehrgeiz is a new Squaresoft fighter and each of the movies show some great gameplay footage. The Brave Fencer movies show gameplay footage in a lava level, a mine level, and a forest area. Click here to go the movies page. - GhaleonOne & Webber 2:35 PM EST

As you can see, we've been down ALOT this week, and it's affected our hitrate quite a bit. There really isn't anything we can do about it, but we can say, if you are looking for a good website hosting service, DO NOT use SimpleNet. In the past 48 hours, our website has been down probably 40 of those 48 hours, keeping you from viewing the site, and keeping us from updating it. It's back up now(hopefully to stay), and we'll get back to our daily updates, especially the awesome Lunar 2 Eternal Blue special. Another note, we should be moving to www.lunar-net.com within a week, possibly as early as Tuesday. Take note that it is http://www.lunar-net.com and NOT http://www.lunarnet.com which is already taken by somebody else (and which has had a "In Construction" notice on for months now). One last note, with the release of Shining Force III Part 1 for the US Sega Saturn, we want to remind you that we have a message board for the Shining Force series that can be used for game help and discussion. Click here for the message boards page. - GhaleonOne 1:35 AM EST

First off, Elemental Gearbolt was released a few days ago for the Playstation. The first impressions by most gamers is that the game is excellent, but very hard. Also, Working Designs announced they are now taking preorders for Magic Knight Rayearth for the Sega Saturn! The price is $64.99. More details on both Elemental Gearbolt's release and the preorder information for MKR can be obtained at Working Designs website. Also, a Playstation version of Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Remix was recently announced for the Sony Playstation for a Spring 1999 japan release. Call me crazy, but I would expect Working Designs to announce this title sometime in the near future for the US Playstation, possibly within a month or two. - GhaleonOne 1:20 AM EST

Alot of new bromide pics have been put up. It is now known that there are 16 bromides. LunarNET already had a Jean and Lucia bromide up. I just put up five new ones. Three bromides for Lemina, and a single bromide for Mia and Jessica each were put up. Expect more pics, movies, and more later this week for Lunar2 Eternal Blue. Click here for the bromides. Monday, expect more pics to be put up. - GhaleonOne 1:00 AM EST

In its first week of release in Japan Lunar 2: Eternal Blue sold over 72,000 copies. It came in third for the week of July 20th-26th, following Konami's Powerful Pro Baseball 98, and Square's Brave Fencer Musashiden, which is nearing the half million mark in total units sold.-Webber 8:30 AM EST

Two new movies for the game Kartia, the upcoming Strategy RPG for the Playstation from Atlus, have been put up. Both movies are from battle scenes showing off the games spells, go here to download them. -Webber & GhaleonOne 12:00 AM EST

Namco is now planning to port the very popular Super Famicom title Tales of Phantasia to the Playstation. This is all due to the success of the games sequel Tales of Destiny, currently out in Japan and set to be released in the US later this year. Tales of Phantasia is expected to be released sometime this winter in Japan. The game will be virtually the same with added CG movies, plus graphical and music/sound upgrades. No word on a US release for this game.-Webber 10:30 PM ESTSource: Magic Box

A rumor states that Square may be working on Final Fantasy Tactics 2, a sequel to FF Tactics. Furthermore the game may take place in a different era, with new characters. Lastly, more Final Fantasy characters may make appearances in the game.-Webber 10:25 PM ESTSource: Magic Box

Two AVIs of Lunar 2 Eternal Blue and one movie of Brave Fencer Musashiden have been added. The Brave Fencer movie shows off some gameplay while the EB movies are some footage of gameplay in the Blue Spire(walking around the dungeon and of battles), and the other is when Hiro meets Lucia. Click here for the movies. The EB movies were also added to the EB Remix Special page. - GhaleonOne 2:05 AM EST

The promo AVI of Lunar Silver Star Story from the Working Designs page was uploaded by NallWdrgn to the Dragons of Lunarpage, here on LunarNET. It can be downloaded from the DOL page, or straight from the LunarNET movies page. It is a lengthy download, so make sure you have plenty of time before attempting the download. GhaleonOne 2:40 AM EST

According to SimpleNet, our host server, they are moving to better servers and that has been the reason for LunarNET's downtime. Even before that, LunarNET went down alot due to the downtime of the SimpleNet servers, so we've decided to move to www.lunar-net.com in the next week or so with a new host server. Also, I want to let everyone know that I won't be updating quite as often for the next week due to a hardware failure on the computer I use to update LunarNET with. I'll still have minor updates for you, but until my good computer gets back from the shop next week, my updates will be limited. Do not worry though because Rudo and Webber are still there to give you plenty of updates but just don't expect any more pics on the Lunar EB section for a while. Expect the Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Remix coverage to pick up again when I get my computer back. GhaleonOne 2:40 AM EST

In commemoration to the release of Shining Force 3, Esque has decided to review the 2 classic Genesis originals: Shining Force and Shining Force 2. Those are really good reviews of the Genesis classics and could be very helpful to people who aren't sure if they should get the third in the series cause they've never played the first 2. Click here for the Shining Force review and here for the Shining Force 2 review. Rudo 11:30 PM EST

We have a reader review of Brave Fencer Musashiden from our good friend DM_Dyne (Jim Donald) in Japan. This is one of the most sought after game right now not only because it's a great game but also because of the playable Final Fantasy VIII demo that comes with it. Even without the demo, this game is well worth the money so check out his review by clicking hereRudo 9:00 PM EST

As many of you may have guessed I played through the FF8 Demo, and now that I'm done with pics and movies, I'll post some impressions of the demo.

First, the demo starts out with an intro featuring excellent detail, including a real close flyby of Squall Leonheart's face. Square's improvement in the quality of their FMV cutscenes really shows. The characters look much more detailed and life-like. The intro ends similar to the way the intro ended in Midgar, in FFVII, seamlessly right into the game. It thrusts Squall and co. onto a beach where they must invade some kind of base. Players will see all the chracters running after Squall when they move around the game environments, instead of just seeing Cloud as in FFVII. The characters also look very different from the way they looked in FFVII. They are, as described in many prior reports, much more lifelike. They are taller, and less blocky, the detail level is a bit higher. The characters remind me of those in Resident Evil, and Square's own Parasite Eve. I've said in the past that I don't like the look of the characters in FFVII, so in my eyes this is a definite improvement. The rendered environments in the demo were very nice, nothing really more fantastic then what was seen in FFVII though. I did enjoy the music I heard while running around in the demo, some of which can be heard in the movies we have up on the site. Hopefully this is a sign of great things to come in that department.

Next, the battle system. By now most gamers will know that Square is using the same game engine for FFVIII as the one used in Parasite Eve. It doesn't make battles seem a great deal different from those in FFVII though. The environments for the battles are a little bigger, and the camera does zoom out more. Players will recognize the ATB battle system right off the bat, when the bar is full you can attack. The spell effects are as grandiose as ever, Square is trying to go even further than FFVII. The only summon spell available was Leviathan, but it's definately something to see, it's also nice and long. The summon spell did work a little differently, once it has been cast the characters attack bar turns blue, and players will have to wait for the bar to empty before the spell is cast. I was able to leech abilites or spells off my enemies during the demo, constantly keeping things like healing potions in stock. The demo was over with in about forty minutes, with a nice ending cutscene.-Webber 9:00 AM EST

Many of you may have noticed problems loading LunarNET over the past few days. These problems are beyond our control and we are at the mercy of simplenet, our host. These problems are not new, but they seemed to have intensified in particular the last few days. Fear not though, because these problems will be coming to an end shortly. We almost have our domain name, and then it's off to a new host. We apologize for forcing everyone to suffer through this stuff, but it will be over soon.-Webber 12:00 AM EST

Here are some more Final Fantasy VIII movies. These movies include a battle with soldiers, charaters running through town and an FMV Cut-Scene. We also had that awesome Leviathan spell up for you earlier so download it if you haven't gotten it yet. Expect some first impressions on the demo sometime this week-end. Click here to go to the movies page. - Rudo & Webber 1:15 PM EST

We finally got our copy of the Final Fantasy VIII demo (about time) and we bring you our first exclusive movie of it. The movie is of the amazing Leviathan spell. You might have seen it before but I happen to think that our movie is of better quality than the others out there. Click here to go to the movies page and expect some more movies along with a lot of pics in the next few days. - Rudo & Webber 12:15 AM EST